The latest FACT mix comes from Kamal ‘Geiom‘ Joory, a UK producer with over a decade of pedigree behind him who’s found increased popularity in recent years due to his label Berkane Sol, a home for his own productions as well as contributions from Brackles, Appleblim and more.

Based in Nottingham, Geiom’s first single was in 1995, and he went on to release 12″s on labels like Neo Ouija and Skam (including an album on the former titled Sellotape Flowers), before inaugurating Berkane Sol in 2006 and swifly releasing his first album for the label with 2007’s Island Noise. His 2008 single with Marita, ‘Reminiscin’ opened even more ears to his driving house sound, and was remixed by Kode 9, Shackleton and Skream, cementing it as his biggest hit to date. Since then Berkane Sol has simply got better: one of the most reliable dance labels around, its schedule for this year is pure gold, with recent singles ‘Shred’ (a collaboration with Appleblim) and ‘No More Tears’/’Eyl Booty’ two of our favourites of 2009 so far.

His FACT mix features future Berkane Sol releases (including Alter Ego-recalling house squiggler ‘Vol Glooperstein’, which we can’t wait to come out), plus tracks from Ben Klock, DJ Naughty, DVA, Carl Craig D Malice and more. Full tracklisting follows; scroll down for a Q&A with Geiom.

Tracklisting:

1. Geiom – Sirius Star2. Geiom – Eyl Booty3. D Malice – Bad Habits4. Afromento – Human Wave5. Geiom and Earlybird – Sarari6. Corrupted Cru ft. MC Neat – G.A.R.A.G.E.7. V Man and Danny C – Sweet Blue8. Donae’o – Party Hard9. Hizatron – Von Glooperstein10. Recloose – Can’t Take It (Carl Craig mix)11. Dj Naughty – The Key12. Geiom – Velvet Bell13. DVA ft. Alahna – Leaving on a Jet Place (MA1 remix)14. Kode 9 and LD – 2 Bad15. Kerri Chandler – Pong (Ben Klock remix)16. Geiom ft. Marita – Sugar Coated Lover

You’ve been releasing music for well over ten years, but most people weren’t aware of you ’til the late part of this decade. What’s the Geiom story to date?

Geiom: “After being lucky enough to experience the early UK rave scene at a time when you would get to hear most styles of dance music in one night, me and a friend started making dodgy hardcore beats on a toy sampler keyboard doing pause button edits. Very lo-fi but we learned a lot. The collective comedown era after this lead certain people including myself to investigate the idea of using machines to make music you could listen to at home, which became known as ‘Electronica’. It only had a limited fanbase at the time but these days you hear lots of techniques that it pioneered everywhere from techno to TV adverts.

“Something that still amazes me is the way that electronic music from the late 1950’s onwards manages to pre date a lot of ideas we use now – one example I found recently is an LP by a German lady called Ursula Bogner who never actually played her music to anyone but sounded like a beatless Dilla in outer space…

“I love experimental music. I also love raving and being assaulted by sub bass. I like to think the two can exist together, but it doesn’t seem to happen often enough.”

Where’s the name from?

“It’s just an abstract name really.”

What are those early releases like? How’s your sound changed since then?

“My earlier music is not designed for clubs, it’s more like listening material. As certain people have pointed out, my music has not actually changed that much since stuff like the Sellotape Flowers LP, it’s just got tougher beats and heavier bass.

“Something that has changed is my studio – I still have all my hardware synths/sampler/fx units but I also have the luxury of modern computing – when we made the Magic Radios LP it took forever – putting all that live audio (guitars, flutes, violins etc) into an old school sampler and sequencing from an Atari ST is cool but very time consuming. Having more than 16mb of sampling time these days is pretty useful too.”

How did Berkane Sol form?

“A combination of encouragement from Kode 9 and my oldest friend Alan Deselect to do it myself…”

“Black Sabbath were much funkier than some of today’s wobblas.”

What intentions did you have for the label when you started it, and how has it evolved?

“There was no real plan for Berkane Sol at first, I mainly expected to just put out my own stuff, but once the label developed a bit of a profile we realised we could do more with it. People who like the label are pretty open-minded tempo and style wise which gives us an opportunity to experiment.

“I did want it to be a purely physical label – I don’t personally engage much with buying music digitally but that seems to be an essential part of the plan these days so we are currently sorting out the digital catalogue. I worry that music which only gets a digital release is kinda ‘invisible’ – I love crate digging in dusty old second hand shops, how will the music lovers of the future do this?”

You’ve already released albums – are you making a new full length, and how will it differ from what’s come before?

“I am happy enough putting out singles, but I have got loads of unreleased material that I would like to see out there. A new album could be a mixture of house and 140 tunes. Or maybe I’ll write something from scratch as a ‘concept’ piece!”

Tell us about the mix you’ve done for FACT…

“It’s intended to be a little showcase of some of my own house tracks complemented by some of the music which inspires me when I make that style. Look out for the amazing ‘Von Glooperstein’ by Hizatron which is on Berkane Sol 013 and the end track ‘Sugar Coated Lover’, which Marita and myself are quite proud of. It’s a straight vinyl and dubplates mix – there are some mistakes but I prefer to hear that rather than the perfection you get from doing a mix in Ableton etc.”

Your current stuff is pretty funky, pretty garage-y – is that a deliberate change in direction?

“I don’t feel that I am actually changing direction, I am currently making three styles of music at the same time. It is true to say that the heavy end of dubstep is not as inspiring to me as it once was – a tune like Skream’s ‘Chest Boxing’ was perfection, but it seems such tracks were just not ‘ard enough for some producers/ravers.

“I like dance music to sound like dance music, not heavy metal.  Although i do love super heavy distorted music (even metal) when its done well. Black Sabbath were much funkier than some of today’s wobblas.”

What’s are Geoim and Berkane Sol’s plans for the future?

“I have my ‘Hem’ side project almost out of its tracksuit and on the pitch – its like weird glitch hop sketches or something, its really enjoyable for me to make and the people who have heard it seem to be feeling it…There are some forthcoming releases on other labels, I’d like to see the Hem stuff on some of these.”